The Month in Reviews: August 2026

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Cover image of "The Fall and Redemption of Conscience" by Andrea Ferrari

The Month in Reviews: August 2026

Introduction

One of the fun things I was able to do this past month was to review two books about people who grew up where I grew up–Phil Keaggy and John DeMain. Not only did I review Ann Patchett’s latest, Whistler but also a wonderful book by Andrew Krivak and a fun adventure for middle grade readers. Then there was a book by a man who persevered through reading the whole Encyclopedia Britannica, a book on whites who persevere in pursuing racial justice, and what constitutes a good quit! I would also highlight books by Alan Noble on living virtuously, a poetry collection by T. A. Gibson and Nadya Williams’ Christians Reading Classics. Finally, I read a book on what it was like for men like my father, part of the Greatest Generation, to return from World War II. That doesn’t exhaust the twenty books you’ll find here!

The Reviews

Oscar and the Mystery of the Glowing Orbs (The Sensate Saga), Don Everts. IVP Kids (ISBN: 9781514012185) 2026. Shortly after moving, Oscar starts seeing things and joins school journalists to solve a mystery. Review

Becoming Neighbors, Amar D. Peterman. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802884121) 2026. Seeking the local common good through shared tables, neighbor love, building together, and faithful presence. Review

New Testament Ethics, Cherryl Hunt, Nicholas J. Moore, and Timothy J. Murray, editors, foreword by Luke Timothy Johnson. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802884503) 2026. Critical and constructive essays discussing Richard B. Hays “The Moral Vision of the New Testament” thirty years later. Review

Whistler, Ann Patchett. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780063511637) 2026. When Daphne Fuller runs into the stepfather she hadn’t seen for forty years, they reconnect, understanding the bond between them. Review

Christians Reading Classics, Nadya Williams. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310171072) 2025. A reading guide to the Greek and Latin classics and why Christians should read them and how they may benefit. Review

The Black Agenda, Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, ed. Foreword by Tressie McMillan Cottom. St. Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250276872) 2022. Black thinkers in various fields make recommendations to combat racism and promote needed societal change. Review

Guards! Guards! (Discworld, 8), Terry Pratchett. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780063373761) 2024, first published in 1989. When a secret society summons a dragon to get rid of Ankh-Morpork’s Patrician, the Night Watch gains a new sense of purpose. Review

Oh What A Day, John B. Hatch with foreword and commentary by Phil Keaggy. Palmetto Publishing (ISBN: 9798318835919), 2026. The background, composition, recording, and impact of Phil Keaggy’s debut solo album, a milestone in Christian music. Review

Paul’s Gospel in Romans, Jarvis J. Williams. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9781540963291) 2026. Argues that Paul in Romans articulates a gospel with vertical, horizontal and cosmic dimensions. Review

The Wounded Generation, David Nasaw. Penguin Press (ISBN: 9780593298695) 2025. The experience of veterans returning from World War II, their invisible wounds and their impact, and the G.I. Bill. Review

Racial Justice for the Long Haul, Christine Jeske. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514011034) 2026. Qualitative ethnographic research analyzing why some white advocates for racial justice persevere. Review

A Wayfarer’s Poems: The Invitation, T. A. Gibson. Resource Publications (ISBN: 9798385225644) 2026. Poems celebrating wonder in creation, in one another, and in the Waymaker, inviting attention and belief. Review

The Fall and Redemption of Conscience (Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology), Andrea Ferrari, foreword by Paul T. Nimmo. Lexham Academic (ISBN: 9781683598725) 2026. A study of conscience in relation to the Triune God as created, fallen, redeemed, and perfected. Review

Mule Boy, Andrew Krivak. Bellevue Literary Press. (ISBN: 9781954276468) 2026. New Years Day 1929 changed Ondro Prach’s life. His first day as mule boy was also the day he alone survived a mine collapse. Review

The Gospel of Being Human, Marty Solomon with Reed Dent. NavPress (ISBN: 9781641589482) 2026. A reframing of the gospel beginning with the good news of our humanity and an invitation to curiosity and wonder. Review

Becoming God’s Family, Carmen Joy Imes, IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514010327) 2025. A biblical theology of the church for the disillusioned, addressing faults and casting vision for its importance. Review

The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9780743250627) 2005. A memoir of reading the 32 volume 2002 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover. Review

Working with My Heroes, John Demain and Greg Hettmansberger. University of Wisconsin Press (ISBN: 9780299352202) 2026. A memoir by Madison Symphony Orchestra’s director, tracing his mentors from Youngstown to the greats of American music. Review

The Good Quit, Jeffrey A. Lockwood. University of Wyoming Press. (ISBN: 9781646428069) 2026. A philosophical inquiry into the what, when, why, and how of quitting including the different kinds of quits. Review

To Live Well, Alan Noble, foreword by Justin Whitmel Early. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514002247) 2026. Explores the classic and Christian virtues and how we may cultivate habits of the heart to flourish in a chaotic world. Review

Best Book of the Month

I chose Andrea Ferrari’s The Fall and Redemption of Conscience because it does something inherent in good theology. It reminds us of truth our generation may have forgotten. I wrote, “I thought this treatment moved us from conscience as an aspect of self-consciousness to recognizing the wonder of conscience as God’s gift, enabling our covenantal relationship of trust and faithfulness. All the more is this so as one weighs the contrast of the fallen and renewed conscience, especially the shift from darkened understanding to increasing clarity of perception, and from hiding from to openness to God. And then there is the hope of the perfected conscience! This is a rich study that recovers the doctrine of conscience as a glorious gift of the Triune God.”

Quote of the Month

How does one describe a passage of music in words? In Oh What a Day, John B. Hatch does this for each track of Christian musician Phil Keaggy’s debut solo album. As one example, consider this description of the beginning of the opening track of that album:

“The timbre of acoustic guitars creates an intimate feel, while the regally marching low notes and briskly dancing high notes evoke majesty and celebration together, foreshadowing the sublime yet accessible music to follow. What a perfect introduction for a song (and album) about God who graciously ‘gives life to all mankind.’ “

What I’m Reading

The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie is like a short story collection of Hercule Poirot stories, connected by his detective equivalent of the labors of Hercules. Great fun. Nolan is a biography of Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Fame pitcher, describing how his life reflects his upbringing in a small Texas town. Just starting The World Beyond Your Head by Matthew B. Crawford. Loved his Shop Class as Soulcraft. So, I hope this matches or exceeds that. How to Be a Christian Influencer looks at what it means to use social media well as a Christian, something I’ve striven to do on all my Bob on Books platforms. Finally, Communio Theology looks at the theological movement within Catholicism born of the collaboration of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, and Joseph Ratzinger. An eclectic list for sure!

The Month in Reviews is my monthly review summary going back to 2014! It’s a great way to browse what I’ve reviewed. The search box on this blog also works well if you are looking for a review of a particular book. So, thanks for stopping by and feel free to share this with others!

Review: To Live Well

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Cover image of "To Live Well" by Alan Noble

To Live Well

To Live Well, Alan Noble, foreword by Justin Whitmel Early. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514002247) 2026.

Summary: Explores the classic and Christian virtues and how we may cultivate habits of the heart to flourish in a chaotic world.

We live in a chaotic world that sends us contradictory messages about the “good life.” Thus, we often feel ourselves pulled in different directions, never sure of what is good or right. Alan Noble proposes in this book that “[v]irtues are cultivated habits that align us with who God created us to be.” Virtues don’t save us. Rather, the Holy Spirit enables those in Christ to live virtuously, honoring God as He intended. In this book, Noble considers the four classic virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, and the three Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love. He devotes a chapter to cultivating each of these “habits of the heart.”

Choosing Decisively. Prudence, as W. Jay Wood defines it is “the act of thinking truthfully about the best means to appropriate ends.” However, this does not mean there is One Right Choice. Rather we weigh tradeoffs, count costs, listen to wise counsel and then decide and rest in it.

Acting Justly. Noble explores what Christ, not the world, call us to and our right obligations. Practically, we seek to give others their due with generosity, as it is within our power while trusting Christ to make all things new.

Suffering Steadfastly. Fortitude and courage has to do with how we face suffering. The truth few will tell us is that life involves a lot of suffering. Christ helps us meet suffering with fortitude through his own example and through the knowledge of the greater good that comes to those who endure suffering. Fortitude also involves magnanimity, to act courageously with the talents God gives us.

Living Moderately. We live in an economy of excess, urging us to consume all we can. Temperance is about ordering our desires to reflect God’s will, enjoying the good in moderation and refraining from the harmful that reflects disordered desire. It means choosing not to do all we can in order to say “yes” to God.

Believing Soundly. Faith is not the lack of doubts and questions. Rather, it is to continue to hang onto the trust that God is good enough to save us in Christ and to keep obeying amid our questions. Also faith honestly takes our bitterness and anger with God to God, an act of trusting. That is, beyond the circumstances that elicit our anger we choose to hang onto the belief in God’s goodness.

Hoping Resolutely. We face challenges, even of an existential order, for which we despair of human solutions. We risk succumbing to acedia, a kind of sadness, of sloth that relinquishes hope that under God, our lives matter. But to hope resolutely is to believe in the God who is able to intervene, and who will one day, even if not in every circumstance now, make all things right.

Loving Rightly. Finally, Noble considers all the broken images of love and what it is to love rightly as those loved extravagantly by a gracious God. Love proclaims, “It is good that you exist; how wonderful you are!” Then it is desiring the good for the other as it has been revealed in Christ’s person.

In concluding, Noble reminds us of the importance of community in cultivating virtue. He also reminds us that the reality is we will have failures but that this is the endeavor of a lifetime. Pursuing virtue is not a technique but our ongoing reliance upon grace to choose the good.

Alan Noble has do something far more profound than write a how-to book for the good life. He has reminded us of the language used through the ages for habits of being that produce goodness under grace. My brief summaries hardly do justice to the depths Noble explores with each virtue. This is a book to read and re-read. It speaks from a place of wholeness into our chaotic, disjointed lives. It is a signal to us that another life is possible.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: August 23-29

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The Weekly Wrap: August 23-29

Personal Libraries

Build a personal library. Unless you are at the stage of deaccumulating, I would urge you to consider this. Many homes have a bookshelf or two. I’m suggesting a real library. It could be a designated room or distributed through your living spaces, as it is in our home.

This doesn’t mean keeping every book you read. Rather, think of those books each member of your household treasures. Our household has theology and history, literature and science, cookbooks and art books. One room has Ohioana and Youngstown books. When our son was living with us, the library included his books, including stories we treasured reading aloud together.

As a child, my parents books helped feed my love of reading–everything from fiction to encyclopedias. Often guests in our home would take a book to read before bed. Sometimes those books would go with them! Hospitality is not just about feeding the body, but also feeding the soul.

Books are a kind of memory palace. They remind us of where we were in life when we first read them. Some, such as favorite stories and poetry and books of devotion are friends we revisit.

I also ponder the pulping of books and the decline of reading and worse dystopian nightmares. I hope we may, in our lives and beyond, preserve what is best of what people have thought and written. So, my advice to those starting out in life: build a personal library. It will be a friend for life.

Five Articles Worth Reading

One of the reviewers I consistently read is Jennifer Szalai, with the New York Times. This week she reviews classics translator Emily Wilson’s new essay collection, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea in a review titled “For Emily Wilson, Translating the Ancients Requires a Dash of Cardi B.” That tells you something right there!

My newsfeed has been full of tributes to Dolly Parton, who passed this week. I thought “The Most Beautiful Woman” captured the many facets of Parton’s life and her cultural impact.

Those who devote themselves to the study of literature learn to engage in close reading. In “In Praise of Unclose Reading” Stephen Akey agues that there are also joys and a place for what he terms “unclose reading.”

It was many years ago, while working on a study of the theology of work that I came across josef Pieper’s Leisure, the Basis of Culture. I felt like Pieper wrote from another time or a different place, speaking into the dysfunctions of our culture. I was reminded of this by Griffin Gooch who makes the case for “Why You Should Read Josef Pieper.”

Finally, with students, teachers, and professors returning to the classroom, JSTOR ran another of its article compilations on “Back to School.” It includes articles on everything from primary sources to the mainstreaming of homeschooling, on libraries and reading lists and so much more!

Quote of the Week

Poet and essayist Rita Dove was born August 27, 1952. She offers this insight into the generous life that I really like:

“If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.”

Miscellaneous Musings

At a time when there are a record number of challenges and banning efforts against book, I am all the more impressed with the quiet work of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. During her life, this put over 330 million books into the hands of children, a great boost to reading literacy efforts. And during the time when so many are fighting about vaccines, she quietly donated $1 million of her own funds to provide seed money that led to the development of Moderna’s vaccine. If I had to choose, I want to be like Dolly.

I watched the American Masters documentary, Mary Oliver: Saved By the Beauty of the World, on Tuesday. I’ve loved her poetry and was fascinated to learn that I had lived for a time in her childhood home of Maple Heights, Ohio. I was saddened to learn of the dark history of that childhood and her instinct, from the week she spent in the woods at 17, to seek out beauty and light, which shines through in her poetry, read by luminaries like Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Colbert, and her neighbor, John Waters. If you missed it, you can still stream it from this link or on many streaming platforms.

My son sent me this reel from Facebook on how the Internet Archive scans books without destroying them by removing the bindings. I don’t approve of what AI companies are doing in buying old books to train AI, but at least they could adopt this method and then donate the books.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Alan Noble, To Live Well

Tuesday: The Month in Reviews: August 2026

Wednesday: Muriel Elmer, Night of the Fireflies

Thursday: Stuart Kaminsky, Murder on the Yellow Brick Road

Friday: Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 23-29.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: The Good Quit

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Cover image of "The Good Quit" by Jeffrey A. Lockwood

The Good Quit

The Good Quit, Jeffrey A. Lockwood. University of Wyoming Press. (ISBN: 9781646428069) 2026.

Summary: A philosophical inquiry into the what, when, why, and how of quitting including the different kinds of quits.

“I quit!” Most of us have said those words, or something like them during our lives. Sometimes that was a good decision and sometimes one we regretted. That may or may not have to do with how or why we quit. Sometimes, we quit freely, while at other times, it may have been compelled or was something we did with reluctance. Furthermore, character enters in. To quit sometimes seems a sign of weakness, especially if one quits too easily or often.

Given this, Jeffrey A. Lockwood, who quit the field of entomology to become a professor of natural sciences and humanities, take us us on philosophical and practical study of quitting. His study breaks into three parts. Firstly, he considers the various kinds of ways we stop doing something or how quitting manifests. We end relationships, undergo conversion, renounce certain habits, and make decisions around the end of our lives. We end employment out of principle, frustration, or to pursue more favorable work. From games and athletic contests to wars, we terminate our involvement, usually when the cost of continuing is greater than that of conceding defeat. Out of all this, Lockwood formulates a taxonomy of quitting.

Secondly, Lockwood discusses the when and why of quitting. He looks at how we decide to “hold ’em or fold ’em” in a number of different activities. He explores the difference between well-reasoned and impulsive endings. Lockwood also considers the matter of free will. We do not always quit by our own choice alone but because of various levels of coercion–think Tom Brady or Joe Biden. Then there are the various levels of quitting from cold turkey to cutting back. Is doing less a kind of quitting? Finally, in the last chapter of this section, Lockwood formulates a definition of quitting incorporating the factors he has discussed:

“Quitting is the task of integrating rational and emotional considerations in voluntarily terminating one’s commitment to a typically ongoing state or process of considerable meaning to the individual for a time or degree sufficient to produce a marked subjective change” (p. 157).

Thirdly, Lockwood gets into the practicalities of how we quit well. Here, Lockwood pursues the path of phronesis or common sense. We balance the virtues of courage, wisdom, justice, and moderation to quit in a manner consister with the character to which we aspire. This means we work through the why, having sound justification. We are clear about the what. And we discern when, neither too soon or late, the line between grit and quit.

I read this book mindful of my most recent “quit,” my decision to retire after working 48 years in an organization with no mandatory retirement age. I had watched others stay too long. The questions of the book were real, and although I didn’t have access to the book at the time, the process squares with my own experience. most of all, it was a decision in timing and execution consistent with the kind of person as spouse, colleague, and college minister to which I aspired.

Lockwood combines analysis and theory with storytelling and practical help. The book elaborates what the title proposes. It also helpfully delineates the tension between quit and grit and the important issues of character and not just career savvy involved. Likewise, the fact that it discusses other kinds of endings makes this a valuable guide at any age or stage of life. In many instances, quitting is the right thing to do. This book helps us discern those times and the steps to take to flourish through what may be a hard process.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Review: Working with My Heroes

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Cover image of "Working with My Heroes" by John DeMain and Greg Hettmansberger

Working with My Heroes

Working with My Heroes, John Demain and Greg Hettmansberger. University of Wisconsin Press (ISBN: 9780299352202) 2026.

Summary: A memoir by Madison Symphony Orchestra’s director, tracing his mentors from Youngstown to the greats of American music.

His parents recognized his musical gifts at age three when he would join the women’s choir at Mt. Carmel Italian Church to sing the benediction hymns. Now in his eighties, John DeMain, music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra for 32 years, has had an incredible life in music, which he recounts in this memoir, co-authored with the late Greg Hettmansberger, who died in a tragic auto accident in 2020. DeMain narrates his life while Hettmansberger provides researched background material. The demarcate their respective contributions in different typefaces.

Together, they trace his life from his childhood in Youngstown, Ohio, his training at Juilliard, his decision to conduct and early experiences, culminating with work with the Houston Grand Opera (HGO). In 1996, they staged the first production of George Gershwin’s complete score of Porgy and Bess, winning a Grammy Award for the recording. Leonard Bernstein told DeMain that this was the Porgy and Bess production that he had waited forty years to hear. It led to work with Bernstein, premiering A Quiet Place and with John Adams, premiering Nixon in China, in 1987. In 1994, when the HGO fell into financial troubles, DeMain realized a longing for symphonic conducting and pursued a position with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, believing Madison a good place for he and his wife Barbara to raise their young daughter.

DeMain has led the Madison Symphony Orchestra since then, recently stepping down as music director. He continues to direct the Madison Opera. During that time, he has led the Orchestra to take huge leaps in professionalism, enjoyed broad community support and engagement with the community, and opened a new performing arts center. All this and more is detailed in an informative and highly entertaining narrative. He includes stories of playing piano at a mob wedding and personal insights into many of the luminaries with whom he worked.

As a fellow Youngstown native, I enjoyed learning of the role Youngstown played in his development. He had gifted piano teachers, Hermann and Blanche Gruss. His first mentor was the founding conductor of the Youngstown Symphony, Michael Ficocelli. As his fourth grade music teacher, he taught him conducting and he filled in when Ficocelli couldn’t be there. At age nine, he soloed in Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Youngstown Playhouse. Eventually, he became dance rehearsal accompanist for a Playhouse production of Paint Your Wagon, mentored by music director Lillian Butcher Stambaugh. Then, he served as musical director of Brigadoon for the Playhouse as a high school freshman. A benefactor, Lawrence Lawler, recognizing his gifts, took him to see a touring company of the Metropolitan Opera in Cleveland.

All this culminated in entering the Youngstown Symphony’s concerto competition in 1961. Going up against more highly trained competition, including a Juilliard student, he won, opening the door for him to study at Julliard. During and after his time at Juilliard, He worked with John Kenley’s summer stock productions. Through Kenley, he learned to care for touring stars, culminating with opera great Giorgio Tozzi in Man of La Mancha. [I saw that production on a date in high school!]

DeMain not only chronicles his work with heroes like Jorge Mester at Juilliard, Julius Rudel at the New York City Opera, and Bernstein. He also takes us behind the scenes of various productions, both the technical and personal challenges. He describes his working relationship with various soloists and his flexibility in working with singers. For Porgy, he became a learner, learning from Black performers the southern religious culture behind the spirituals in the full version. Implicit in his account of the Madison years, I sense the community itself has been one of his heroes.

Don’t skip DeMain’s Afterword, “Some Notes for Conductors and Thoughts on the Future.” This is a concise but illuminating distillation of his philosophy of conducting. He also offers his own, mostly optimistic, reflections on the future of classical music.

DeMain and Hettmansberger collaborated seamlessly. Hettmansberger’s background material flows into DeMain’s storytelling without being disjointed. Thus, the book combines scholarly biography with engaging memoir.

Several years ago, I had the privilege to do a Zoom interview with Maestro DeMain for a blog article in my “Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown” series. It was a delightful hour, but I sensed that there was so much more we could have talked about. This book, while not exhausting the stories he could tell, gave me so much more. He portrayed his deep and ever-fresh love of all kinds of music. He captures the delight of working with composers, soloists, and musicians to bring that music to life. And in talking about his heroes, he reminds us of the village of people who formed each of us.

Review: The Know-It-All

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Cover image of "The Know-It-All" by A.J. Jacobs

The Know-It-All

The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9780743250627) 2005.

Summary: A memoir of reading the 32 volume 2002 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover.

Many of us readers may not openly admit it, but secretly, we harbor the “know-it-all” dreams of A.J. Jacobs. We read voraciously, hoping to edge closer to knowing as much as we can about everything. Of course, this is a case of our reach exceeding our grasp. And most of us eventually settle for just being life long learners.

Perhaps Jacobs may be excused. He comes from a family of know-it-alls. His father held the record for the most footnotes in a law review article (5,435) and had also attempted to read the Encyclopedia Britannica. He got through the Bs. He also had a true know-it-all brother-in-law. Eric, who bested him in every conversation. Jacobs was pursuing a career in journalism, writing for Entertainment Weekly, and eventually Esquire. This afforded him a lot of knowledge of popular culture, but he felt all the learning of college slipping away. And so he landed on the project of reading through the 32 volumes of the 2002 Encyclopedia Britannica, from A-ak to Zywiec (a village in Poland).

Needless to say, his wife Julie, and most of the others thought it a bit crazy. And it got annoying when he injected strange facts and usually useless information into their lives, or worse, into their social gatherings. But what’s the value of being a know-it-all if you can’t show it?

The book is organized into an A to Z summary of his reading. We learn lots of interesting tidbits. For example, before vinaigrette was a salad dressing, it served as a deodorant in the eighteenth century. And A-ak? It’s a term referring to ancient East Asian music, explained more fully if you “see gagaku.” One might say, Jacobs read the Encyclopedia so we don’t have to, summarizing 33,000 pages in 400.

But there is so much more. Fancying himself a genius, he tries to join Mensa. It turns out he qualified based on his college entrance exam and a good thing, too. He miserably failed the Mensa test. But in the Mensa gatherings he generally found himself out of their league. Then there are the attempts to get onto game shows. Turns out an earlier interview with Alex Trebek disqualified him from competing. However, he manages to get onto Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Turns out he stumbles on something he read about back in the Es: erythrocytes. What component of blood are they. It turns out his brilliant brother-in-law Eric is also clueless and he ends up guessing wrong. The answer: red blood cells. So all that reading adds up to $1000 and an interesting story.

He discovers that reading the encyclopedia is a losing battle with memory. Conversations with an expert on intelligence suggest that the learning in encyclopedias is only one kind of intelligence, and perhaps not the most useful in every day life. But he is inspired by a visit to the Encyclopedia Britannica offices, where he even contributes some corrections! So what does he learn? In addition to a lot of great Scrabble words, he glimpses both the awful messes and the huge achievements of humankind. The achievements give him hope. And perhaps the article on Ecclesiastes gives him the greatest wisdom–that while life is absurd, to take pleasure in the good things God provides. And he closes the last volume, realizes he has his life back (after often reading four hours a day in addition to his day job) and enjoys a lovely dinner with his wife.

The book convinced me to settle for more modest projects. I wasn’t always sure I liked Jacobs very much, even though his romp through the encyclopedia was fun. But he is who he is with us and I guess that counts for something. So, if you’ve ever had aspirations to read through an encyclopedia (harder because only World Book still prints them), you might want to read this first. It could save you a lot of time.